To get a good tomato crop, many gardeners use such a technique as pinching or, as they call it, the formation of a tomato bush. What does this concept include? Plant biology implies that in the bosom of each leaf in tomatoes, a stepson appears - an extra shoot. If they are not removed, then the gardener will eventually become the owner of a huge plant with a large mass of green tops, and there will be few brushes and fruits that have begun to grow on it.
However, there is a subtlety: different bushes need different stepson. When you buy seeds, it is often written on their packaging whether the given variety is indeterminate or determinant. What is the difference between these two types?
Indeterminate tomato is a plant with unlimited growth. It usually grows to 2 meters or more in height. The determinant tomato grows to a certain height, on average 50-70 cm, it happens even lower.
The formation of a tomato bush of indeterminate and determinant varieties occurs in different ways. An indeterminate plant must be formed in such a way that only one main stem remains. To do this, it will have to remove all stepsons.
On the packaging with the seeds of the
determinant tomato is sometimes still written "unsafe", thereby misleading people. Of course, such tomatoes will also perceive the formation of a bush positively. But stepsons do not need to be removed.
A determinant plant is formed into two or three stems. It is necessary, in addition to the central stalk, to leave one or two lower stepsons, respectively (the first is under the flower brush, the second is the strongest of the remaining ones), from which later the side stems will form.
Stepsons are removed as soon as they reach 7-10 cm in length. They need to be broken out with the thumb and forefinger. And just break it out, and not cut with a knife or scissors. It is also impossible to pluck out and pull out - after such pinching, the plant receives a long non-healing wound, open for fungal infection. In general, injuries from pinching remain in any case. So that they heal faster, the formation of a tomato bush should be carried out on a clear sunny morning.
Having broken down the stepson, in his place you need to leave a small stump 1-2 cm high. If you do not do this and break the shoot completely, from the same place the stepson will begin to form again.
When the gardener takes up the formation of a
tomato bush
, he must clearly distinguish between the stepson and the flower shoot. Some unknowingly break out flower shoots instead of young shoots, thereby naturally reducing the tomato crop. Although there is a significant and clearly noticeable difference between them. The stepson always has leaves, even when he is still very small. There is not a single leaf on the flower brush.
In addition to pinching, the formation of a bush of tomatoes in a greenhouse also includes pinching, i.e. removal of the growth point on stored shoots. This is done in the first half of August.
A good prevention against fungal
diseases of tomatoes will also be the removal of their lowest leaves, touching the ground. So you need to do with all the leaves growing on the stem in the "30-centimeter zone", starting from the ground surface.
A perfectly formed tomato bush has 5-6 fruit brushes and 30-35 leaves. Then the nutrients will go not to the development of stepsons, but to the formation of the fruits and their filling. Tomatoes and sizes are larger, and ripen earlier.